Political Quotes

“I am here to talk about the future of our country and the future of our middle class, which I know the Presiding Officer cares deeply about as well. A few years ago in Michigan something quite extraordinary happened. In 1914 a man named Henry Ford did something that all his business friends said was crazy. He doubled the wages of his workers to $5 a day. The headlines at that time showed that those on Wall Street literally thought he was going to ruin the economy, and everyone said he was going to go under. It was the craziest thing they had ever seen. Exactly the opposite happened. In fact, there were stories a month after he did this--by the way, tens of thousands of people showed up for these jobs. Around the plant there were newspaper interviews about how all the small businesses had seen their profits double and how they were hiring new people for the hotdog stand or the clothing entrepreneur who was selling shoes and suits, and so on. Small businesses said that it had been wonderful for them. We all know what happened to Henry Ford. He went on to become one of the wealthiest men of his generation by doing the right thing and understanding that we all do better if everybody has a fair shot to make it and that he would do better as a business person if everybody had a shot. In fact, we are very proud, and we believe we started the middle class in Detroit, MI. We celebrate success in this country.…”